I’ve spent several hours over the holidays searching for something my family can play and coming up empty.
The game that most often works is Song Pop Party on Apple TV, but non-apple phones have a second rate experience and keep disconnecting.
Ideally we’d have a trivia game as I also want to engage some older folks, but the leasing trivia game on Apple TV is way too US specific and hard for our family to enjoy.
There used to be a game show on local TV in the late nineties called “Noot vir Noot” (note by note) that had a whole bunch of games based on music that was familiar to the local market. I’ve been chasing something like that for years and not come close.
I guess the point of my rambling is that I LOVE the phones-as-controllers approach to party games, but many seem to focus on Nintendo-esque experiences, rather than quiz game like experiences.
I am aware of the Jackbox games but haven’t looked at the recent releases. They were hit and miss with the family in the past, with many of the non-english first language folks often not getting it.
Fantastic idea!! I've been working off and on with local 4-8 player games, but I had only been using the Javascript gamepad API. I like how you're using smart phones, this seems like a good way to go about it!
It would be nice to be able to mix game pads and smart phones -- when gaming with kids, none of my kids have smart phones yet, so it would be nice to be able to let them use Switch controllers if we have those on hand, or use phones if we don't.
Regardless, I'm interested in this, and would be interested in contributing a game or two. This seems excellent!
There's a saying that no idea is unique, that when you think of an idea, someone else would have thought of the same. I _literally_ have the same idea and am working on a PoC, except mine is completely LAN-based. I'm so happy to see your app!
Check out Moonlight/Sunshine. I have several tvs around the house and my primary desktop is in the utility room with no monitor or keyboard. Essentially any TV can be any PC, without cables.
You might be in that sweet spot where people use laptops as their personal computing device rather than an office PC or smartphone. I personally only have a desktop PC in a different room so there's no way I'd be able to plug it in using HDMI. The alternative would be using something like parsec or moonlight to stream my PC screen over the LAN.
I wish I saw this two hours ago! I just got back from family Christmas with Jackbox games and I would’ve loved to as try this out too. Definitely going to try this soon.
definitely going to try it with some friends. But it's true that at first I was checking which games I could connect to, or how it worked without reading anything, and thought it was to connect to some multiplayer games of steam, and gaming couch acted as a layer to use phones as joystick only.
Agreed... also fwiw I don't think that langauge-dependent games are as much of a barrier as it used to be. I've built a game recently that I easily localized first with real-time AI translations and then later with more static language translations.
Anyway I think this would be an amazing thing to let other people contribute to as this is an entire industry of hypercasual games which could easily be ported to this minus the annoying ads
I love this initiative!
I’ve spent several hours over the holidays searching for something my family can play and coming up empty.
The game that most often works is Song Pop Party on Apple TV, but non-apple phones have a second rate experience and keep disconnecting.
Ideally we’d have a trivia game as I also want to engage some older folks, but the leasing trivia game on Apple TV is way too US specific and hard for our family to enjoy.
There used to be a game show on local TV in the late nineties called “Noot vir Noot” (note by note) that had a whole bunch of games based on music that was familiar to the local market. I’ve been chasing something like that for years and not come close.
I guess the point of my rambling is that I LOVE the phones-as-controllers approach to party games, but many seem to focus on Nintendo-esque experiences, rather than quiz game like experiences.
I am aware of the Jackbox games but haven’t looked at the recent releases. They were hit and miss with the family in the past, with many of the non-english first language folks often not getting it.
Fantastic idea!! I've been working off and on with local 4-8 player games, but I had only been using the Javascript gamepad API. I like how you're using smart phones, this seems like a good way to go about it!
It would be nice to be able to mix game pads and smart phones -- when gaming with kids, none of my kids have smart phones yet, so it would be nice to be able to let them use Switch controllers if we have those on hand, or use phones if we don't.
Regardless, I'm interested in this, and would be interested in contributing a game or two. This seems excellent!
There's a saying that no idea is unique, that when you think of an idea, someone else would have thought of the same. I _literally_ have the same idea and am working on a PoC, except mine is completely LAN-based. I'm so happy to see your app!
This is sick. I've always wanted to see a modern take on pokemon stadium minigames.
Totally agree with your thoughts on jackbox, they're fun but not gaming. Def saving this for later.
This looks super fun, will try with the family when they get out of bed :-)
Do you think it would work on smart tvs with browsers?
If Im having people over I would never start a PC and ask them to hunker down, turning on the tv though…
Check out Moonlight/Sunshine. I have several tvs around the house and my primary desktop is in the utility room with no monitor or keyboard. Essentially any TV can be any PC, without cables.
plug your computer in via hdmi? Or am I too old?
You might be in that sweet spot where people use laptops as their personal computing device rather than an office PC or smartphone. I personally only have a desktop PC in a different room so there's no way I'd be able to plug it in using HDMI. The alternative would be using something like parsec or moonlight to stream my PC screen over the LAN.
I wish I saw this two hours ago! I just got back from family Christmas with Jackbox games and I would’ve loved to as try this out too. Definitely going to try this soon.
Do you have plans to monetize this? I can think of a few options but they all feel pretty gross...
> Yes, Gaming Couch is currently free to play!
Emphasis mine. Sounds like they're not ruling it out.
I mean, a one time fee, maybe even per mini-game, doesn't seem gross?
It doesn't seem gross, but that would introduce friction, which it seems like OP is against.
If that's considered bad then there really is no good way to make money from software in 2025.
Nice! Definitely showing this to the family over Xmas, great timing haha
definitely going to try it with some friends. But it's true that at first I was checking which games I could connect to, or how it worked without reading anything, and thought it was to connect to some multiplayer games of steam, and gaming couch acted as a layer to use phones as joystick only.
Looks pretty cool. Is it open source? I'd love to have community contributed games
This would be so cool… community contributed games with ratings and themes. So much potential for a platform like this. Great work!
Agreed... also fwiw I don't think that langauge-dependent games are as much of a barrier as it used to be. I've built a game recently that I easily localized first with real-time AI translations and then later with more static language translations.
Anyway I think this would be an amazing thing to let other people contribute to as this is an entire industry of hypercasual games which could easily be ported to this minus the annoying ads
Looks so smooth and no fuss, thanks for building this
Would love full remote play somehow so I can use it for team games with my remote team!
Excellent work. I've played Jackbox party games before and they're a lot of fun!
Very cool, would cool if it's open ecosystem to develop games for, it's on my 2026 bucket list
Very cool! Thanks for sharing. I would be making stuff like this if I didn't work for a legal team with a consumer electronics company attached to it.
this is so cool
Crazy Build
JD Vance would fucking love this!